"The time has come," the Walrus said, "to speak of many things."

[maddeninghatter]

Date & Time: June 29
Location: Chez Break
Characters: Xerxes Break and Leo, the Hound Heir of the Baskervilles.
Summary: Leo decides to unburden himself
Warnings: None

[ For the past fifteen years, Xerxes Break has devoted his life to a cause. Carefully, painstakingly, and secretly, he has constructed his chess table, and put his pawns in play. Now, finally, his singleminded pursuit of the truth is about to pay off. It's within his grasp - again. He won't let it slip from his fingers, this time…

No; that's not quite right. His goal hadn't slipped. He destroyed what he'd wanted, all on his own. Because something, at the time, had been more important. Something. Someone.

He hadn't regretted his choice, but he'd felt disordered afterwards. He's a man who lives but for himself: this is how he has managed to justify his own existence after all these years. Well - isn't it the exception that proves the rule? This was an explanation he could live with.

And that would have been all right, except he's starting to accrue more exceptions: people who matter to him. The thread of logic supporting that explanation is becoming increasingly more tenuous, something that should occur to him if he thinks about it, which he is trying most assiduously not to do.

Thus it is with a mixture of excitement and foreboding that he waits.

Just knock on the door already, Leo! ]

Comments

[maddeninghatter]

[ There are fancy doorhandles at the Rainsworth estate, the main hazards of which are that he occasionally inadvertently snags his floppy sleeves on one when he's heading swiftly in the opposite direction and he gets grabbed and swung around by it and hopes no one saw that, because really!!!

Anyway, that's the effect Leo's first revelation has. Break startles again, speechless and staring. Nevermind everything else in that speech, it will percolate through in a second, but for now his brain is snagged on this point: ]

Gilbert?

Gilbert, the next Glen Baskerville?

Gilbert???

[flecks]

[ Sorry Break, but he's definitely a witness to your shock and blunder. Luckily he just doesn't care to comment on it nor can he really fault anyone for being surprised. Jack had everyone deceived for so long after all, it must be hard to believe.

But out of all the things to be surprised and get hung up over, Leo wasn't expecting it to be Gilbert. He blinks, staring rather blankly back as his voice takes on a mild tone. ]

Yeah, he's Oswald's servant after all. Not that it matters now, his ceremony got interrupted, but technically he is a Baskerville.

[maddeninghatter]

Oswald's servant!

[ He had, for a very long time, assumed Gilbert's fixed, unnatural loyalty towards Oz had to do with Jack Vessalius. He'd asked Gilbert point-blank about this; he couldn't answer, of course. Whatever, or whoever had blocked his memories had done a very good job. More recently, he'd wondered if Gilbert's role in the Tragedy (had he betrayed Jack? or failed him in some way?), is what Vincent had been trying to hide all along. ]

But Vincent--

[ Of course. That sewer rat had conspired with Jack Vessalius and...

His mind is exploding with questions, he has searched so long for answers and now to be finding them all at once. It's like finding a buffet table stocked with cakes from one end to the other and not knowing where to begin. Step by step; he'll go step by step through what Leo has told him. ]

Vincent, a "Child of Misfortune." What is a Child of Misfortune?

[ He'd researched the term ever since Vincent had called him that, so long ago. He'd never been able to find anything beyond its being a term of derision for red-eyed children, who used to be persecuted, and now no longer. No one could say why. ]

[flecks]

[ Ah, one of the questions that was going to require a lengthy explanation, but at least it's one that can tie it all together. The purpose of Glen Baskerville, the Children of Misfortune and Jack's motivations for doing the things he's done.

In a way it's interesting too, for someone who looks like they could be a Child of Misfortune to be asking that question. As far as he knows, Break has no ties to Glen though.

There's an audible exhale, something very close to a sigh, before he starts. ]

A Child of Misfortune is someone born with red eyes and the ability to communicate with the Will of the Abyss. They threaten the stability of the world as only Glen Baskerville is permitted to have that ability. Those of the Baskerville clan are chosen as messengers of the Abyss, we exist to protect it, you see. For that reason, a Child of Misfortune's fate is to be thrown back into the Abyss.

[ A beat, his voice growing slightly more detached because the next bit holds something personal. ]

The funny thing is, those destined to be Glen Baskerville create a distortion of bad luck around them and a Child of Misfortune is the result of that.

[ Now, to tie it all together . . . ]

Do you know of Lacie? [ She'd been here after all. She'd been here and she'd called herself his aunt and Leo had felt for her and her unfortunate fate. ]

[maddeninghatter]

[ All of this is very uncomfortably personal. So excruciating is the sensation that his features freeze... into an expression of polite inquiry. ]

I spoke to her, here. She was... from that time also.

[ He forces his mind away from any personal revelations, towards the facts at hand (particularly as Mochijun is sitting off somewhere, cackling over details WE STILL DON'T KNOW!!!!). Jack himself had called Lacie a misfortunate child. What else had he said...? Break connects the dots: one, two, three. ]

She was Glen's... Oswald's...

[ Vincent is Gilbert's brother, hence: ]

...sister, maybe? And Jack's--

[ How Jack had reacted when he spoke Lacie's name. ]

Jack's lover. And she--did she meet her fate? Cast back into the Abyss by--

[ Hadn't Oz's own father thrown him into the Abyss? ]

--by her brother. So Jack...

[ Love and revenge: the most ancient of stories. But then why-- ]

Why then, Sablier? Why drop the whole city into the Abyss? Why the slaughter? Was his hatred that great?

[flecks]

[ Leo lets Break figure it out, there's not much to say when he's connecting the dots all by himself anyway. He only makes affirmative noises as Break does it.

Sister? Yes.

Lover? Not quite, but close enough so it gets a hum.

Thrown into the Abyss? Yes, unfortunately. ]

Not just Sablier. He intended to sink the entire world into the Abyss, not out of hatred, but to bring it to Lacie. It's merely that Oswald stopped him and restrained the damage to Sablier. The slaughter wasn't done by Jack, it was on Glen's orders because it was necessary. Everyone there would have turned to Chains and be left out of the 100 year cycle of rebirth otherwise.

[ A beat. ]

Death is much kinder, wouldn't you say?

[maddeninghatter]

The entire world...

[ Wouldn't he have done the same, in those awful, empty months after he'd found out about the ultimate fate of the Sinclairs. Sink the whole world, destroy everything, because what point was there in the existence of anything if his precious family couldn't survive...

Thus it is with authority that he states, flatly: ]

He's mad.

[flecks]

[ Leo blinks, silent for a beat before he surprises even himself with an unexpected bark of laughter (genuine for the first time in what feels like ages) at Break's somewhat underwhelmed reaction.

That was putting it mildly. ]

He's dangerous, that's why. [ Why he warned him.

But Leo's left out some key players in the story, Oz and Alice, and he realizes that now. Secretly he kind of hopes he can get away with not mentioning them at all, but even though he hardly knows Break, he knows the man at least well enough to know that that was going to be very unlikely. Still, if he doesn't have to raise the point himself, he's not going to. ]

pretend there's no blood on this icon

[maddeninghatter]

[ He tilts his head, confused at the laughter. Odd boy. He's mad too, maybe. He's certainly got enough reason to be...

As for Jack--

Break's mouth twitches into a hard line. Jack knows him as Kevin, somehow. He'd identified Jack as dangerous from that very moment. Dangerous to himself, dangerous to-- ]

Oz.

What is the connection between Jack Vessalius and Oz? How does Jack speak through him? Is it... is it the Chain? They're both contracted to B. Rabbit, so...?

[ Perhaps that's how Leo had accessed Glen's memories - via his contract with Jabberwock. He'd never heard of such a thing being possible; but there was still so much they didn't know about the Abyss. ]

[flecks]

[ No such luck. It figures.

But Break's smart and he's already hitting the nail on the head somewhat, so he must have some suspicions and that makes it easier. So, rather than actually replying (beyond a nod), he figures it doesn't hurt to poke a little to see how much he's figured out by himself. ]

Have you noticed anything weird about Oz?

[ Like say, his ability to summon B-Rabbit without Alice there. ]

[maddeninghatter]

Oz?

[ A long pause, as if he's considering. What to say, what not to say. What private suspicious to voice; and how best to keep Leo talking. Finally, he murmurs: ]

Everything. He is--

He can be right in front of me, speaking to me. Yet I always wonder: where is he?

[ A twitch of his shoulders; a shake of his head. A visible chill. ]

I cannot shake the feeling that he does not belong in this world.

[flecks]

[ That will do, he supposes. It makes a decent start to say: ]

That's because he doesn't.

[ Chains belonged in the Abyss, after all. Break is right about that. There's only a brief, sobering pause before Leo continues. ]

The existence of Oz Vessalius doesn't really exist. He's nothing but a Chain in Jack Vessalius's de-aged body.

[ Most likely Break can guess which Chain. ]

[maddeninghatter]

He is--

[ WHEEEEEEEEEE-OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

It's the teakettle, blasting its whistle. Break jumps up automatically, catches his foot on the leg of the coffee table and manages not to go down, though it takes a hop and windmill of his arms. He's reeling. He makes it to the stove and shuts off the heat, to make the kettle stop squealing, but all thoughts of tea seem to be out of his head as he stands there, breathing hard (from the exertion of jumping up, right?). ]

He is the--

Then Jack used him to--

[ His hands (or rather the floppy sleeves covering them) fly up to his face, hiding it. ]

[flecks]

[ Leo can only sit back, watching slightly wide-eyed as Break nearly trips. (Really, Elliot? He needed a better idol.) It's almost comical, except there's really nothing comical about the current situation and Break's reaction is understandable.

By contrast, Leo remains calm and composed. His voice blank and matter-of-fact. ]

That's right, he used Oz to start the Tragedy. Not that Oz remembers anything, of course.

[maddeninghatter]

[ By the time he draws his hands away, his features have smoothed out - though there are still bright pink patches on his cheeks, belying his emotion. ]

Oz...

[ What's left in the box might not be hope. He'd had no idea how prophetic those words might be. ]

So he's an illegal contractor twice over, then.

[ The original Oz had been an illegal contractor, was dragged down, and became a chain. That is the only provenance of chains, as far as he's aware. ]

What sort of boy was he? What was his story?

[flecks]

What— [ are you talking about? That's the question about to leave his mouth, as for a moment he's confused at the jump in logic Break's making, but he catches on the train of thought quickly enough.

Ah, if only. Perhaps even that would have been kinder. ]

No, he was never human. He's a Chain born from a plush rabbit. Like I said, he was never real.

[ Perhaps a cruel thing to say about a friend so bluntly, but those were just the facts and Leo's providing them. ]

[maddeninghatter]

[ Xerxes Break is not the sort of person who can derive truth solely from feeling. Things have to make sense, logically, otherwise his mind rejects them. Thus the sincerity of his affection makes the reality that much more disconcerting.

He can't--

He can't. He folds his arms and is grateful, for the moment, that he doesn't have to meet Leo's gaze. ]

What does Alice have to do with all of this?

[flecks]

[ Leo does sigh audibly and obviously this time. Not because Break asked (that was inevitable), but because he's not a big talker and spilling all these truths is getting to be rather draining. It doesn't help that all of it is so complicated.

He drops his gaze to the floor, rather than keep staring at Break's back, unseeing. ]

Everything.

[ A pause for a deep breath. ]

She's Lacie's daughter. Before she was thrown into the Abyss, Lacie and the Glen before Oswald decided to do an experiment. Lacie was impregnated and she gave birth to twins in the Abyss, one of them being Alice.

[maddeninghatter]

[ Another astonishing revelation, enough to distract him - for the moment - from the awful news about Oz. He turns, facing Leo. ]

And the other, the Will of the Abyss. They would change places back and forth, in the world, so I understand.

[ The puzzle pieces keep coming together. ]

Vincent Nightray, child of misfortune, with an ability to contact the Abyss. Jack Vessalius, who needed a Chain to destroy the world...

[ Hadn't Leo told him earlier that Vincent had been a pawn in the Tragedy? At the time, he'd exulted at the news, not understanding. Ugh. ]

Manipulated Vincent... through Gilbert, somehow...

[ How else? ]

The Will of the Abyss loved Jack. He... manipulated her, too. Asked for... [ Oz! ] a Chain to destroy the world, and she gave it to him. And then... Alice was murdered, and she could no longer change places. She went mad... madder.

[ The white Alice he had met when Sablier had fallen into the Abyss was mad already. Of course: a little girl trapped in a place like that. No wonder she had begged him to save her. ]

But no matter what, Jack was an illegal contractor. He should have been dragged down into the Abyss, eventually, body and soul. So why does his body still walk the earth? What became of his soul?